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11-1-2013
Diversifying the Playing Field: Solo Performance of
African American Spirituals and Art Songs by Voice
Students from All Racial Backgrounds
Emery Stephens
Wayne State University, [email protected]
Caroline Helton
University of Michigan
Recommended Citation
Stephens, Emery and Helton, Caroline. (2013). Diversifying the playing field: solo performance of African American spirituals and art
songs by voice students from all racial backgrounds. Journal of Singing 70(2): 165-171
Available at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/musicfrp/3
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Diversifying the Playing Field: Solo
Performance of African American
Spirituals and Art Songs by Voice
Students from All Racial Backgrounds
Emery Stephens and Caroline Helton
Whether singing or acting, race and color prejudices are forgotten.
Art is one form against which such barriers do not stand.
(Paul Robeson)
Emery Stephens
Caroline Helton
Journal of Singing, November/December 2013
Volume 70, No. 2, pp. 165–171
Copyright © 2013
National Association of Teachers of Singing
November/December 2013
T
INTRODUCTION
o further promote the performance of African American
spirituals and art songs, this article offers a different perspective—direct response from collegiate voice students, voice teachers, vocal coaches, and professional singers. In the spring of 2005,
“The African American Art Song Survey” was developed and disseminated
through the Internet to collect data from 220 voice teachers, coaches, and
singers regarding their attitudes on performing African American classical
vocal repertoire across racial backgrounds, receiving a response rate of 44%
from 500 distributed surveys. Part I dealt with general demographic questions
(gender, age, ethnic background, religious affiliation), and Part II addressed
specific questions about musical training and exposure to art songs and
spirituals by African Americans. Part III dealt with preferences of vocal performance style, and Part IV posed two questions regarding attitudes toward
the performance of this repertoire by singers of all racial backgrounds (i.e.,
questions regarding perceptions of authenticity), in which the respondents
were invited to explain their ratings with comments.
Approximately one-quarter of the respondents were African American
and three-quarters Caucasian, and three-quarters of the respondents have at
least one degree in music. Further, sixty percent of the respondents identified themselves as voice teachers and professional singers, and around thirty
percent as voice students. More than sixty percent said that they had never
received any instruction on singing African American art songs or spirituals
in their private or institutional voice studio, but almost eighty-seven percent
said they desired to perform this literature.
Following a poster presentation at the Sixth International Congress of
Voice Teachers Conference (Vancouver, 2005), research survey findings
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Emery Stephens and Caroline Helton
were delivered with University of Michigan colleague,
Dr. Caroline Helton, at the International Society for
the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference
(District of Columbia, 2006) and the African American
Art Song Alliance Conference (University of CaliforniaIrvine, 2007). In addition, the project was highlighted
in a collaborative article, “Singing Down the Barriers:
Encouraging Singers of All Racial Backgrounds to
Perform Music by African American Composers,” published by Jossey-Bass for one of its academic journals,
Scholarship of Multicultural Teaching and Learning.1
BACKGROUND
Although a number of festivals in this country are
devoted to art song performance, the works of African
American composers are rarely, if ever, considered for
performance. One is given the impression that this
repertoire is either unavailable or unworthy of performance.2 Because of this initial exclusion, these works
never gained entrance into the traditional canon in
higher education and beyond. The current sensitivity to
race in the performance of art songs and spirituals by
African American composers stems from our nation’s
history of slavery on the one hand and the legacy of
nineteenth century minstrelsy and its stereotyping and
mocking of African Americans on the other. These
historical accounts continue to challenge most singers, but performing art songs and spirituals by African
Americans could provide a means of exploring and
defusing the racial sensitivity that we feel today.3
A variety of factors feed this dilemma: an unwillingness to offend black audiences by white performers in
particular; desires for African American singers not to
be stereotyped by performing spirituals; ignorance from
lack of exposure to the repertoire; inexperience with
performance practice; and questions of “ownership.”
Because spirituals were adopted and sung by slaves
during their daily activities (work, ceremonies, religious
gatherings), these pieces are thus intimately connected
to the history of slavery in the United States.4
The idea for this research project developed in a
doctoral seminar taught by Dr. Helton, a white faculty
member at the University of Michigan. In a presentation on the performance practice of singing African
American spirituals, I concluded by encouraging my
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vocal colleagues (all white except for one Asian student)
to study and program them on their upcoming recitals.
To my surprise, the halting reply was “We can’t because
we’re not black,” to which I replied, “Why not?” Thus
began our work to address four key questions:
1. What are the barriers that singers from all racial
backgrounds face when performing art songs and
spirituals by African American composers?
2. How do students and teachers confront their preconceptions when learning any piece of music (e.g., a
female student singing a song from a man’s perspective)? Specifically, what must we do to incorporate
learning spirituals and art songs by African Americans?
3. How is a singer’s outlook on racial dynamics affected
by studying and performing these pieces?
4. What do we need to do as educators to enable singers
from all racial backgrounds to become more comfortable performing this repertoire?
QUANTIFIABLE DATA
Out of the 220 respondents on the African American Art
Song Survey entitled, “Beyond Race: The Universality
of Singing African American Art Songs and Spirituals,”
86 (39.1%) were male and 134 (60.9%) were female. Age
ranges are shown in Table 1; Table 2 shows the racial
breakdown of the 220 respondents.
Some survey respondents reported that they were
very comfortable singing spirituals because of their
TABLE 1.
Age Range
Response
Percentage Total
Respondents
18–3549.6% 109
36–5022.7%
50
50+27.7% 61
TABLE 2.
Race
Response Total
North American Indian or First Nation
1
Asian or Pacific Islander
3
Black or African American
48
Latino/a3
White160
Multiracial5
Journal of Singing
Diversifying the Playing Field: Solo Performance of African American Spirituals and Art Songs
upbringing in the South; however, other respondents
believe that a person of color brings a unique timbre
and interpretation to the performance of this repertoire.
Responses to the question about challenges to performing this repertoire broke down into four categories.
Although roughly a quarter of the responses referenced
fears of inauthenticity or needing permission to perform
the repertoire, another quarter cited lack of availability
or knowledge about where to find repertoire. A slightly
greater number of respondents felt that they lacked
sufficient stylistic knowledge or guidance to interpret
correctly and respectfully, and a small number of singers
cited ignorance (from the general public or colleagues,
or their own musical shortcomings) as a barrier.
The survey also asked about the extent to which a
performer’s race contributes to the authenticity of his
or her performance of this repertoire. Approximately
twenty-five percent of the respondents felt that race
greatly contributed to perceptions of authenticity, while
sixty-two percent rated the contribution moderate, and
thirteen percent felt that the race of the performer did
not play any role at all. When asked to explain their rating, responses indicating that race played a major role
came from African Americans, who felt a strong sense
of ownership of the repertoire,
“I think that at this point race plays a major part in the authenticity of singing African American art songs, simply because
many teachers of other races have not taken the time to know
this material well enough to teach students how to approach
them with understanding and appreciation for the history
behind them.”
and non-African Americans, who assumed that audiences wouldn’t accept them.
“I think African Americans can sing these types of songs more
authentically, and I feel like I don’t have as much of a right to
perform this type of music because I’m not black. But I think
if more singers of all races were to sing this type of material, it
would become more widely accepted.”
The majority of respondents, however, felt that singers
of all racial backgrounds must actively work to connect
to the literature they sing. They said that it might be
easier for some African American singers, who have had
certain experiences to connect to the repertoire, but that
does not rule out the responsibility borne by any singer
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to create an authentic and committed performance; in
other words, race alone does not bestow authenticity
on the singer. Respondents observed, “It’s not so much
race as it is the level of familiarity with the style,” and “A
good understanding of the history of African American
art songs, the text of the song, and how to properly
sing it is necessary, and these factors have nothing to
do with race.”
In fact, when asked how comfortable they would be if
singers of all races performed this repertoire, virtually all
the respondents (ninety-nine percent) reported a high
or moderate level of comfort. In response to open-ended
questions, two singers spoke eloquently of the possibility
for cross-cultural awareness:
“As a fellow African American, it is my duty, and the duty of
other African Americans, to continue performing the songs of
our past to others. I believe that is very important to do; however, when people of other races sing these wonderful songs the
message of continuing the story is extended to a greater family
of people, beyond race.”
“I do not believe that music has a soul, but it does leave the
imprints of people’s spirits and communicates on a deeper
level than our verbal language can ever begin to communicate.”
QUALITATIVE DATA
The highest number of responses cited the availability of
repertoire and recordings, lack of knowledge of performance practice (dialect and style), fear of inauthenticity,
and questions of ownership. However, a collective group
of responses centered around the following key factors:
• fear of inauthenticity;
• questions of ownership;
• history of racism;
• discomfort with minstrelsy tradition;
• expectations (how will others perceive me singing this
repertoire?);
• cultural conflicts;
• lack of exposure to spiritual or gospel tradition;
• lack of knowledge of performance practice (dialect
and style).
To offset the many barriers articulated by the respondents, we believe there are many pedagogic benefits
that students and teachers alike will learn through this
repertoire. They include classical and popular musical
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Emery Stephens and Caroline Helton
idioms, complex vocal technique (i.e., offbeat melodic
phrases, blues notes, hums, additive rhythms and polyrhythms), interdisciplinary connections to African
American culture and experience, and diversity issues.
In the survey many African American singers said
(to paraphrase), “If I can sing from a nineteenth century white German man’s point of view, why can’t a
white person sing from a slave’s point of view?” At the
University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre &
Dance, Dr. Helton led a small but diverse focus group
of undergraduate students to do just that. The group
consisted of two white female singers, two white male
singers, and one black male singer, who first answered
a series of questions about their backgrounds and their
expectations and opinions of and previous exposure to
art songs and spirituals by African Americans. With the
help of their studio teachers as well as a course regularly offered at our university on the song literature of
African Americans, the students explored their chosen
repertoire. Some of them had guidance from African
American professors, and some students worked independently. At the focus group discussion, many of them
remarked on their artistic exploration.
“I was glad to have the opportunity to perform this repertoire
with permission, because I’ve only ever seen black singers perform it and I’ve always wanted to be able to.”
“You need to understand the struggle and some of African
American history and know how each song relates to the
struggle. Each story is told from a different perspective.”
“[This music] is powerful because the music is still here,
still meaningful and not removed from our cultural experience. Everyone can relate. Music is about the universality of
experience.”
“[I gained the most insight] when I did my first mock performance—after the music was learned and memorized—and I
was making choices about how I was going to make people
believe me. I thought that, since I’m African American, my
connection would be automatic, but my insight came through
real performance.”
All these singers were struck by the strong emotional
content of the pieces and the music’s unique ability to
convey the universality of experience. Since African
American spirituals are a part of the cultural fabric
of America, these songs will forever document the
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resilience of a people who fought for freedom against
the social, political, and geographical injustices of a
democratic society.
MASTER CLASSES: THEORIES
PUT INTO PRACTICE
When we first published the results of this survey, it
was our intention to continue our research by presenting lecture-recitals and master classes at a variety of
colleges and universities in order to get more feedback
about perceptions of crossing the color barrier while
performing art songs and spirituals by African American
composers. We were, in fact, able to visit three state
universities with very different student demographics,
and with participation from the faculty of these universities, we performed a program designed to elucidate the
history of this repertoire. We then conducted master
classes with student singers, as well as visited classrooms,
where we held discussions about the poetry, history, and
performance practice of the repertoire. Our experiences
were, not surprisingly, varied but also quite encouraging.
The first university was in the Midwest, and the faculty and students were all white and from a non-urban
(i.e., suburban or rural) background. Here we were met
with a uniform attitude of “Teach me, I want to learn
and explore.” This complete lack of self-consciousness
on the part of the students was due, in part, we believe,
to the homogeneity of the student population and the
leadership of the faculty by example, which created a
safe atmosphere for student exploration. We feel that
in this setting there are truly no barriers or taboos for
the students if the faculty are willing to take the lead by
performing and assigning pieces from this repertoire
to their students.
The second university was also in the Midwest, but the
student population we worked with was pretty evenly
divided between black and white singers, and they were
mostly from urban areas. The faculty demographic mirrored the diversity of the students, with two white and
two African American voice professors. In this setting,
the students were very open and well informed; perhaps due to the level of cultural diversity the student
body experiences as a matter of daily life, it seemed as
if these students were much more aware of the complexity surrounding our topic. In this instance we led
Journal of Singing
Diversifying the Playing Field: Solo Performance of African American Spirituals and Art Songs
a panel discussion that included the performers as well
as audience members, and the participants spoke with
great passion, insight, and nuance about their experiences learning, performing, and hearing the repertoire.
With a white performer, for example, we asked such
questions as, “How did you deal with your comfort level
when performing a race-specific text?” The student, who
had performed a setting of the Langston Hughes poem,
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” spoke at length of his
thoughtful preparation and analysis of the text and his
deliberate performance choices as well as his reluctance
(stemming from his desire to avoid offending African
American audience members) to sing in the dialect of the
poem. We also asked the African American participants
whether they had a natural connection to the pieces they
were singing or whether they had to forge a new relationship in their performance preparations, and the answer
from students singing both art songs and spirituals was
that they had to work to make the pieces their own.
Their challenge was to overcome racially-based assumptions on the part of the audience by forging their own
personal relationship to their pieces, and they felt very
aware of the responsibility of demonstrating the skills of
classical singing and interpretation in performance that
they had worked hard to acquire in their studies. There
were moments of humor and release as the participants
spoke openly of race, and during the discussion they
were unfailingly supportive of each other. In the end, the
group concluded that the emotional truths of music and
poetry were universal, and that conveying those truths
was much more important than the singer’s outward
appearance or perceived cultural background.
Whereas we feel this kind of work can be done in any
setting and produce positive results, both of us found
the experience that includes invested and diverse faculty
as well as students to be extremely deep and gratifying.
Since this master class was well attended, we took the
opportunity to videotape the performances as well as
the panel discussion, and we have posted the panel
discussion on the Internet, which the reader is invited
to view by visiting the YouTube link (http://youtu.be/
Mb2j4ZfRwMs).
The third university was in the deep South, also with
a fairly evenly divided racial mix, but the students were
primarily from non-urban communities here as well.
The students in this location also were very willing to
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engage in the conversation we were facilitating, but
they were much less sophisticated than the students at
our second university in terms of grasping cultural and
artistic nuances. Whereas the student body was diverse,
the faculty at this university were all white, and they
demonstrated a general unwillingness to really probe the
issue of crossing the color barrier in performance with
their students. The performances and the master classes
were poorly attended, and the students performed pieces
that were not race specific. In the case of the master class,
we feel that the combination of a still complex culture
surrounding race relations in the deep South with a
reluctance on the part of faculty to promote or even
broach the issues we were discussing presented barriers
that we hadn’t previously experienced.
We had more success, however, when on the following day we were able to perform for and lead a
discussion with a large group of students in a music
appreciation class. The classroom teacher had spent
time laying the groundwork for our visit, and we found
them to be thoughtful and willing participants in the
project. Professor Stephens, who is African American,
performed H.T. Burleigh’s setting of the Walt Whitman
poem, “Ethiopia Saluting the Colors” (in which the
singer speaks from the different perspectives of a white
Union soldier and an old female slave), and then discussed comparisons of crossing gender barriers with
crossing racial barriers when performing. We also led
an exercise where we asked the students to close their
eyes while they listened to Professor Helton performing Hall Johnson’s setting of the African American
spiritual, “City Called Heaven,” after which we talked
about whether knowing that Professor Helton is white
affected their response to the performance. The students demonstrated knowledge of the poets and of the
historical events surrounding the Civil War as well as
the history of minstrelsy, and actively engaged in the
discussion of our topic, which leads us to believe that if
the faculty lead, even where there is a recent history of
painful racial tension, the students are ready to follow.
CONCLUSION
Performing recital repertoire of art songs and spirituals
by African American composers can be a wonderfully
useful way for singers to confront their own preconcep-
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Emery Stephens and Caroline Helton
tions around race and performance practice. There is
no better place to attempt this task than in our colleges
and universities, where teachers can guide and students
explore, pushing beyond the boundaries of their cultural
assumptions in a safe environment in which discussion
of difficult topics is part of the process of their education
as artists and citizens of the world.
What do we need to do as educators to enable singers
from all racial backgrounds to become more comfortable
performing this repertoire? First, voice teachers must
convey the message that all students have “permission”
to perform this repertoire. Second, to guide students
toward committed, informed performances, we need
to familiarize ourselves with the body of song literature
and its proper performance practice.5 Third, we need to
assign these pieces to students as part of their regular
diet of quality music that is good for their voices and
their development as artists. Fourth, we can program
these songs in our own recitals so that our students can
experience a live example of how it’s done. Finally, we
ought to follow up by talking to students about their
experiences of singing these songs, which is easy to do
in one-on-one studio teaching.
NOTES
1. Caroline Helton and Emery Stephens, “Singing Down the
Barriers: Encouraging Singers of All Racial Backgrounds to
Perform Music by African American Composers,” in Marilla
D. Svinicki et al., eds., New Directions for Teaching and Learning (Somerset, NJ: Wiley Periodicals, 2007), 73–79.
2. Darryl Taylor, “The Importance of Studying African American Art Song,” Journal of Singing 54, no. 3 (January/February
1998): 9–16.
3. Lourin Plant, “Singing African American Spirituals: A Reflection on Racial Barriers in Classical Vocal Music,” Journal of
Singing 61, no. 5 (May/June 2005): 451–468.
4. Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History
(New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1971).
5. Helton and Stephens; Plant; Barbara Steinhaus-Jordan, “Black
Spiritual Art Song: Interpretive Guidelines for Studio Teachers,” Journal of Singing 61, no. 5 (May/June 2005): 477–485.
Emery Stephens, baritone, is an Assistant Professor of Voice at Wayne
State University in Detroit, Michigan. He holds degrees from Gordon
College, Boston University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the
University of Michigan. Praised for his singing “with ringing suavity and
articulate intelligence (The Boston Phoenix), Dr. Stephens has performed
170
with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera New England, Arbor Opera Theater,
Carolina Ballet with the North Carolina Symphony, Orchestra Canton,
Prism Opera, Handel and Haydn Society, and Wilmington Symphony
Orchestra, among others.
In addition to performance opportunities, Stephens held teaching
appointments at the University of Michigan (graduate student instructor), Eastern Michigan University, Concordia University-Ann Arbor,
University of North Carolina-Wilmington, and the Buckingham Browne
and Nichols School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a teacher committed to the continual development of his pedagogic skills, Stephens
completed professional summer workshops at the Eastman School of
Music, Westminster Choir College, and with Los Angeles vocal coach,
Lisa Popeil, on the pedagogy of contemporary commercial technique
and vocal styles (Voiceworks Method).
Dr. Stephens has presented his creative research at conference sessions for the National Association for the Study and Performance of
African American Music, College Music Society (Great Plains Region),
International Congress of Voice Teachers, International Society for the
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and the African-American Art
Song Alliance. He is also affiliated with the Center for Black Music
Research, Afrocentric Voices in Classical Music, National Association of
Negro Musicians, and continues to be an active member of the National
Opera Association and NATS.
Caroline Helton, soprano, joined the voice faculty at the University of
Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in the fall of 2000. An artist
who enjoys the entire gamut of classical singing, from opera and oratorio
to recital and chamber music, she has been described as displaying
“masterful” artistry and a “clear, bell-like soprano.”
Highlights from Dr. Helton’s performances include a program in May
of 2011 entitled “Voices of the Holocaust” at New York’s Museum of
Jewish Heritage, in which she and pianist Kathryn Goodson performed
repertoire from their 2009 CD of the same name. Along with UM faculty
Stephen West, baritone, Chad Burrow, clarinet, Andrew Jennings, violin,
Diana Gannett, double bass, DMA student Pia Greiner, cello, and the
composer at the piano, Helton performed the New York premiere of
Paul Schoenfield’s Ghetto Songs on the second half of the program.
Dr. Helton also sang Alberto Ginastera’s rarely performed Cantata para
América mágica for soprano and percussion orchestra with the UM
Percussion Ensemble conducted by Jonathan Ovalle, as part of the
Ginastera Festival presented by the University of Michigan School of
Music, Theatre & Dance in December of 2011.
A longtime NATS member and a passionate teacher and advocate of
diversity, Dr. Helton began her collaboration with Dr. Stephens during
his DMA studies at the University of Michigan. In master classes, group
discussions, performances, and publications they have explored the
pedagogic benefits and challenges of crossing the race barrier when
performing art songs and spiritual settings by African American composers in recital. Other areas of research and performance include music
Journal of Singing
Diversifying the Playing Field: Solo Performance of African American Spirituals and Art Songs
of Jewish composers whose lives were affected by the Holocaust. In
addition to their 2009 CD, Voices of the Holocaust (recorded on the
Block M record label and currently available on iTunes), Drs. Helton and
Goodson recently recorded a second CD of vocal music by the Italian
Jewish composers Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Vittorio Rieti, Leone
Sinigaglia, and Guido Alberto Fano, whose lives and careers were
irrevocably altered by the Holocaust. Given that many of the pieces on
November/December 2013
this disk have not been previously recorded, the CD (whose release is
planned for the fall of 2013) will represent an important addition to the
discography of lost music by Jewish composers from the interwar period.
Dr. Helton is an Associate Professor of Music (Voice) in the School of
Music, Theatre & Dance as well as an Associate of the Frankel Center
for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.
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